How to Apply to Qantas Group

11 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 82 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Qantas Group is Australia's flag carrier, founded in 1920, headquartered at Mascot in Sydney, employing approximately 25,000 people, and operating Qantas, Jetstar, QantasLink, Qantas Freight, and Qantas Loyalty as a single ASX-listed group.
  • Most roles flow through qantas.com/careers into Workday; create a single profile, tailor your application to the specific brand (Qantas mainline, Jetstar, or Loyalty), and complete every Workday field rather than relying on the uploaded resume.
  • Pilot, cabin crew, engineering, and graduate intakes open and close in narrow windows; subscribe to the Talent Community and apply early because high-volume requisitions can close within days.
  • Online psychometric and behavioural assessments are part of nearly every shortlisted application; practice numerical, verbal, and abstract reasoning tests and treat the situational judgement test as seriously as the interview.
  • Interviews are STAR-format competency interviews scored against the Qantas Group leadership behaviours; prepare three to five concrete stories that cover safety, customer service, accountability, teamwork, and dealing with change.
  • Safety is the dominant cultural signal across the Group; show specific examples of safety behaviours, just-culture reporting, and respect for standard operating procedures even in non-aviation past roles.
  • Pre-employment checks include criminal history, work rights, references, aviation medical for safety-sensitive roles, and ASIC sponsorship for airside roles, which can add several weeks to the time-to-start.
  • Compensation is set by enterprise agreements for most operational and frontline roles (TWU, AFAP, ALAEA, ASU, FAAA coverage) and by individual contracts for corporate roles; expect strong staff travel benefits, superannuation, and access to discounted Qantas products.
  • Qantas mainline and Jetstar have different cultures: mainline values premium service and reliability, Jetstar values low-cost discipline and turnaround speed, and resumes and interview answers should be tailored accordingly.

About Qantas Group

Qantas Group is Australia's flag carrier and largest airline, founded in November 1920 in the Queensland outback as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited, making it the world's third-oldest continuously operating airline. Headquartered at Mascot in southern Sydney, adjacent to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, the Group employs approximately 25,000 people across Australia and overseas and operates a fleet of more than 300 aircraft spanning Boeing 787s, Airbus A330s, A380s, A220s, and A321XLRs, with the Project Sunrise A350-1000ULR fleet on order for nonstop ultra-long-haul services from Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York. The Group is structured around four primary businesses: Qantas Domestic and Qantas International (full-service flying under the iconic flying kangaroo brand), Jetstar (the wholly owned low-cost carrier serving domestic Australia, New Zealand, and Asia-Pacific leisure markets from Melbourne), and Qantas Loyalty (one of Australia's most profitable customer programs, with more than 16 million Qantas Frequent Flyer members and the Qantas Money, Qantas Wine, and Qantas Health Insurance ventures attached to it). Qantas Freight, QantasLink regional flying, and the Engineering and Group Operations divisions sit alongside these businesses. Qantas is a founding member of the oneworld alliance, partnered with American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, and others, and runs deep joint-business agreements with Emirates and American. The Group has been listed on the Australian Securities Exchange since privatisation in 1995 and is a constituent of the S&P/ASX 50 index. Culturally, Qantas leans heavily on its safety record, its Australian identity, and its long history of aviation firsts, including the first commercial 707 jet operations outside the United States and the operation of the world's longest commercial nonstop flight (Perth-London on the 787-9). Recent years have included the post-COVID recovery, the controversial 2020 outsourcing of ground-handling roles (later ruled unlawful by the High Court of Australia in 2023), a CEO transition from Alan Joyce to Vanessa Hudson in 2023, a major customer-trust rebuild, fleet renewal worth more than A$25 billion, and Project Sunrise as the flagship strategic bet. Candidates evaluating Qantas should expect a heavily unionised, safety-regulated, two-brand airline group where commercial agility at Jetstar coexists with a premium full-service operation at Qantas mainline.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Search and apply through qantas

    Search and apply through qantas.com/careers, which routes nearly every Group role (Qantas mainline, Jetstar, QantasLink, Qantas Freight, Qantas Loyalty, and corporate functions) into the Qantas Workday tenant; create a single candidate profile so you can track multiple applications and reuse documents across requisitions.

  2. 2
    Pilot, cabin crew, engineering, and graduate roles open in defined intake window

    Pilot, cabin crew, engineering, and graduate roles open in defined intake windows rather than continuously, so subscribe to the Qantas Group Talent Community and check the careers site frequently; cabin crew and pilot intakes in particular can close within days of opening because of application volume.

  3. 3
    Expect an initial application review by a Qantas Group recruiter within two to t

    Expect an initial application review by a Qantas Group recruiter within two to three weeks; shortlisted candidates are invited to online assessments that typically include cognitive and behavioural testing through providers such as Revelian or SHL, plus role-specific simulations for cabin crew, pilots, and contact-centre roles.

  4. 4
    A recruiter phone screen follows for shortlisted candidates, calibrating on moti

    A recruiter phone screen follows for shortlisted candidates, calibrating on motivation for Qantas specifically (mainline vs Jetstar vs Loyalty), salary, mobility across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth, work rights, and any aviation-specific requirements such as ASIC clearance, AFP check, or medical category.

  5. 5
    Hiring manager interviews are competency-based and built around the Qantas Group

    Hiring manager interviews are competency-based and built around the Qantas Group leadership behaviours and Group values, with strong emphasis on safety mindset, customer focus, and accountability; senior, technical, and leadership roles add a panel interview, a presentation, or a case study.

  6. 6
    Pre-employment checks for successful candidates include criminal history, right-

    Pre-employment checks for successful candidates include criminal history, right-to-work verification, reference checks, an aviation medical for safety-sensitive roles, and Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC) sponsorship for any role requiring access to the secure side of an Australian airport, all of which can extend the time to start by several weeks.

  7. 7
    Offers are typically extended within one to two weeks of the final interview and

    Offers are typically extended within one to two weeks of the final interview and arrive through Workday with a written contract and induction calendar; cabin crew, pilot, and engineering offers are made in cohorts tied to training-school start dates rather than individually, so a successful candidate may wait several months for an intake even after a verbal offer.

Resume Tips for Qantas Group

recommended

Lead with measurable commercial, operational, or safety outcomes rather than dut

Lead with measurable commercial, operational, or safety outcomes rather than duties: revenue uplift, on-time-performance gain, cost-per-available-seat-kilometre reduction, NPS improvement, audit findings closed, or safety events prevented, ideally with the baseline you improved from.

recommended

Make the brand fit explicit

Make the brand fit explicit. Qantas mainline values premium service, reliability, and brand stewardship; Jetstar values low-cost discipline, speed, and turnaround efficiency; Qantas Loyalty values data, partnerships, and growth; tailor the language and examples in your resume to the brand you are applying to rather than submitting one generic version.

recommended

Surface aviation-relevant credentials early: CASA licences (ATPL, CPL, AME, LAME

Surface aviation-relevant credentials early: CASA licences (ATPL, CPL, AME, LAME, B1/B2), Cert IV in Aviation, IATA qualifications, Diploma of Aviation Cabin Crew, Dangerous Goods, AVSEC, ASIC eligibility, current aviation medical class, and second-language fluency in priority markets such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, or Vietnamese.

recommended

For corporate, technology, data, and commercial roles, mirror keywords from the

For corporate, technology, data, and commercial roles, mirror keywords from the job description and the Qantas Annual Report: revenue management, network planning, fuel hedging, ancillary revenue, frequent flyer, digital, loyalty partnerships, cybersecurity, cloud (AWS in particular), data platforms, and customer experience all carry weight in the Workday parser and with hiring managers.

recommended

Quantify customer interaction at scale for any customer-facing role: number of p

Quantify customer interaction at scale for any customer-facing role: number of passengers handled per shift, complaint resolution rate, upsell conversion, language pairs supported, and irregular-operations recovery experience translate directly to Qantas and Jetstar service models.

recommended

Show evidence of regulated environment experience: working under CASA, FAA, EASA

Show evidence of regulated environment experience: working under CASA, FAA, EASA, ICAO, ATSB, ACMA, AUSTRAC, APRA, or comparable regimes, plus familiarity with safety management systems (SMS), just culture, and human factors training, is a strong differentiator for technical, operational, and risk roles.

recommended

Keep the resume to two pages for most roles and three for senior leadership or p

Keep the resume to two pages for most roles and three for senior leadership or pilot applications, with a clean chronological format, simple typography, and no graphics, columns, or text boxes; the Workday parser handles plain layouts best, and Qantas recruiters review high volumes quickly.

recommended

Include an explicit Australian work-rights statement (citizen, permanent residen

Include an explicit Australian work-rights statement (citizen, permanent resident, 482 visa holder, working-holiday, etc.) at the top of the resume, because Qantas Group recruiters filter heavily on this and on whether the candidate is ASIC-eligible, particularly for airport-based and crew roles.

ATS System: Workday

Qantas Group runs every brand it operates (Qantas mainline, Jetstar, QantasLink, Qantas Freight, Qantas Loyalty, and corporate) through a single Workday tenant at qantas.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com, surfaced through qantas.com/careers. Workday handles application capture, screening, online assessment dispatch, interview scheduling, offer management, and pre-employment check coordination including ASIC sponsorship and aviation medical workflows. Recruiters work entirely inside Workday, so the structured profile fields (work history, education, licences, languages, work rights, mobility) are at least as important as the uploaded resume.

  • Create a single Workday candidate profile and reuse it across all Qantas Group applications rather than starting fresh each time, so you can track status and avoid duplicate submissions across mainline, Jetstar, and Loyalty.
  • Complete every structured field in the Workday profile, especially work rights, ASIC eligibility, languages, and licences, because Qantas recruiters filter heavily on these fields when triaging high-volume requisitions.
  • Upload a clean PDF or DOCX resume under 5MB with a chronological structure, no columns or tables, and clear section headers; the Workday parser populates structured fields from the resume, so a complex layout produces a noisy candidate profile.
  • Mirror exact keywords from the job advert and the role's listed competencies in your resume and profile, including aircraft types, ATS systems, regulatory frameworks, and aviation acronyms, so the search-and-filter views surface your application.
  • Set up Workday job alerts and join the Qantas Group Talent Community, because pilot, cabin crew, engineering, and graduate intakes open in narrow windows and can close within days of going live.
  • Withdraw applications you are no longer interested in directly inside Workday rather than going silent, because recruiters can see your full Group application history and a tidy profile signals professionalism.

Complete Workday Resume Guide →

Interview Culture

Qantas Group interviews are structured, behaviourally driven, and noticeably more formal than those at most Australian technology employers, reflecting the airline's safety-regulated heritage and the volume of applicants the Group processes each year. Almost every interview, regardless of role, is built around the Qantas Group leadership behaviours and the Group values, and interviewers are trained to ask competency questions in a STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result) and to score answers against a written rubric. Vague, hypothetical, or theoretical answers are penalised; interviewers want a specific past example, a clear description of your individual contribution, the result you delivered, and what you learned. For cabin crew and ground-services roles, expect a group assessment day at a Qantas or Jetstar training facility (commonly in Mascot, Melbourne, or Brisbane) that combines a presentation about the role, group exercises that simulate inflight or airport scenarios, a one-on-one interview, and grooming and uniform-fit observations; warmth, calm under pressure, teamwork, and safety reflexes are the dominant signals. For pilots, the process is multi-stage and includes psychometric testing, a technical knowledge assessment, a simulator check appropriate to the candidate's licence and experience, and a panel interview with senior pilots and human-factors specialists; honesty about errors, sound airmanship, and CRM behaviours matter as much as raw stick-and-rudder ability. For licensed aircraft engineers, technical questions on systems, troubleshooting, and human factors are paired with safety-culture probes and reference checks across the maintenance community, which is small and well-connected in Australia. Corporate, commercial, technology, and Loyalty interviews are typically two to three rounds, often beginning with a recruiter screen and progressing to a hiring-manager interview, a panel with cross-functional stakeholders, and for senior roles a meeting with a general manager or executive. Behaviourally, Qantas interviewers respond well to candidates who show genuine respect for safety, speak about customers as real people rather than data points, demonstrate accountability for past mistakes, and can explain commercial trade-offs in plain English. They respond poorly to corporate jargon, name-dropping, perceived arrogance, dismissiveness about frontline operations, and any sign that a candidate sees aviation as glamorous rather than as a complex industrial business. The tone is professional, warm in an Australian register, and direct; small talk is normal, but decisions are made on the recorded answers to the structured questions, so candidates should prepare specific stories rather than relying on rapport.

What Qantas Group Looks For

  • Safety-first thinking that shows up in concrete past behaviours: speaking up about hazards, completing reports honestly, following standard operating procedures under time pressure, and treating near-misses as learning rather than embarrassment.
  • Genuine customer empathy demonstrated through specific stories of recovering an irregular-operations situation, defusing a complaint, or quietly going beyond policy to help a passenger, rather than abstract claims about being customer-focused.
  • Operational resilience and calm under disruption, since the airline business is shaped by weather, technical delays, crew sickness, and geopolitics, and Qantas needs people who can keep service standards intact when the schedule breaks.
  • Commercial literacy appropriate to the role, including the ability to talk about unit revenue, load factor, ancillary mix, frequent flyer engagement, fuel, or working capital in language that connects daily decisions to Group financial performance.
  • Cross-brand awareness: candidates who clearly understand the difference between Qantas mainline, Jetstar, QantasLink, Qantas Freight, and Qantas Loyalty, and who target their application to the right brand rather than treating the Group as one undifferentiated airline.
  • Comfort working in a heavily unionised, regulated environment with multiple stakeholders (CASA, ATSB, AFP, Department of Home Affairs, airports, ground handlers, unions including TWU, AFAP, ALAEA, ASU, FAAA), and a track record of building constructive working relationships across these groups.
  • Diversity of background and inclusive behaviours that align with the Group's RAP (Reconciliation Action Plan), gender-balance targets, and accessibility commitments; lived experience supporting Indigenous communities, LGBTIQ+ inclusion, or accessibility is genuinely valued.
  • Long-term mindset and pride in the brand: Qantas hires for tenure in many functions, and people who treat the role as a career rather than a stepping stone, and who can articulate why the flying kangaroo (or Jetstar's orange star) matters to them, tend to outperform in interviews.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Qantas Group headquartered, and where are most jobs located?
The Qantas Group head office is at Mascot in southern Sydney, on Bourke Road next to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, and most corporate, commercial, technology, and Loyalty roles are based there. Major operational bases also exist at Melbourne (Jetstar's head office and a large pilot, cabin crew, and engineering base at Tullamarine), Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, and Cairns. International cabin crew bases include London, Los Angeles, Auckland, Singapore, and Bangkok. Engineering heavy maintenance is centred in Brisbane, with line maintenance across the domestic network.
Does Qantas sponsor work visas for overseas applicants?
Qantas Group sponsors Australian work visas (typically subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage and Employer Nomination Scheme 186) for hard-to-fill technical, engineering, technology, pilot, and senior commercial roles, but the default expectation is that candidates already have Australian work rights. Sponsorship for cabin crew, ground services, and entry-level corporate roles is rare. Always confirm sponsorship status with the recruiter during the initial screen, since policy varies by role family and by labour-market conditions.
How long does the Qantas hiring process take?
For corporate, technology, and Loyalty roles, the process typically takes four to eight weeks from application to offer. For cabin crew, the assessment-day-to-induction timeline can be three to six months because of training-school cohort scheduling. For pilots and licensed engineers it can be six to twelve months including simulator checks, sim assessments, medical clearance, and ASIC processing. Pre-employment checks including ASIC, AFP, and aviation medical can independently add four to eight weeks.
What ATS does Qantas use, and how should I optimise my resume for it?
Qantas Group uses Workday as its applicant tracking system, hosted at qantas.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com and surfaced through qantas.com/careers. Workday parses standard chronological resumes well, so use clear section headers (Experience, Education, Licences, Skills), avoid columns, tables, and text boxes, save as a PDF or DOCX under 5MB, and mirror keywords from the job advert and from the Qantas Group careers site. Crucially, complete every field of the Workday candidate profile (work history, education, licences, languages, work rights) rather than relying only on the uploaded resume, because recruiters often filter applicants on structured fields.
What is the difference between applying to Qantas, Jetstar, and QantasLink?
All three are part of the Qantas Group and share the qantas.com/careers portal and Workday tenant, but they are distinct businesses with different cultures, contracts, and bases. Qantas mainline operates premium domestic and international flying with bases in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. Jetstar is the low-cost subsidiary headquartered in Melbourne and operates short-haul leisure flying across Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Asia under separate enterprise agreements. QantasLink operates regional and intra-state services using Q400, A220, A320, A330, and Embraer aircraft. Pay, conditions, rosters, and uniform standards differ between the three, so target your application carefully.
What does Qantas pay, and how is compensation structured?
For most operational and frontline roles (cabin crew, pilots, engineers, ground services, contact centre), pay is set by enterprise agreements negotiated with the relevant union (TWU, AFAP, ALAEA, ASU, FAAA) and includes base salary, allowances for night, weekend, and overseas duty, superannuation, and shift loadings. Corporate, technology, and Loyalty roles are paid on individual contracts that are competitive within the Australian market and typically include a short-term incentive (STI) for senior roles, superannuation at or above the Superannuation Guarantee, and access to Qantas staff travel, which is one of the most valued benefits in the Group.
Does Qantas offer remote or hybrid work?
Operational, frontline, engineering, pilot, cabin crew, and airport roles are by definition on-site. Corporate, technology, commercial, and Loyalty roles operate on a hybrid model, generally requiring two to three days per week in the Mascot or Melbourne offices, with the exact pattern set at the team level. Fully remote roles are uncommon and are usually limited to specific specialist or interstate positions where a local presence in a market is the actual requirement. Expectations have firmed since 2023, with most corporate teams now anchored to a regular in-office cadence.
What graduate and entry-level pathways does Qantas offer?
Qantas Group runs an annual Graduate Program covering finance, commercial, data and analytics, technology, customer experience, engineering, and operations, with intakes starting in February or March each year and applications opening the previous March or April. Other entry pathways include the Qantas Pilot Academy (formerly based in Toowoomba and Mackay, training cadets toward an ATPL), the Qantas Engineering Apprenticeship at Brisbane, school-based traineeships, cabin crew intakes (which do not require prior aviation experience), and the LaunchPad and internship programs. Competition is intense; applications open and close in narrow windows tied to the Australian academic calendar.
What is an ASIC, and why does Qantas keep mentioning it?
An Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC) is the federally regulated identification badge required for any worker who needs unescorted access to the secure side of an Australian airport. It is issued under the Aviation Transport Security Act and requires a national criminal history check, a security assessment by ASIO, and identity verification. Qantas sponsors ASICs for successful candidates in airport-based roles, but the application can take four to eight weeks and a candidate with a relevant criminal history may be ineligible. If a role requires ASIC, the offer is conditional on it being granted.
How should I prepare for a Qantas competency interview?
Study the Qantas Group leadership behaviours and the Group values published on the careers site, then prepare three to five STAR-format stories from your past that each demonstrate two or three behaviours at once. Cover safety, customer service, dealing with change, accountability for a mistake, working in a team, and delivering under pressure. Read the most recent Qantas Annual Report and Investor Day deck so you can speak intelligently about Project Sunrise, fleet renewal, the Loyalty business, and the post-COVID recovery. Avoid corporate jargon, be honest about past mistakes, and tie every answer back to a specific outcome. For frontline roles, expect role-play and group exercises; rehearse staying calm and warm under simulated disruption.

Open Positions

Qantas Group currently has 82 open positions.

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